i've heard people saying for a while that we are only pretending to bid for all these big name players that we have missed out on in the last few years (benzema, ozil, nasri, sneijder, hazard etc, etc... ) to make the fans happy and think that we have money to spend. but with us now looking certain to miss out on another 2 big name players that we have confirmed we have made "bids" for in rvp and lucas, it is just becoming ridiculous and it is becoming very hard to believe that a club of our size could miss out on all of these players if they were really serious targets. i always thought this theory was a bit too far fetched but now i honestly believe that our transfer and wage budget's are so severely restricted by the glazer's debt that we have never had any intention of signing any of these players that we have supposedly missed out on and these "bids" are being leaked to the press by the club to try and keep the fans happy.
posted on 25/7/12
Lambsy
You would have thought so by now.
posted on 25/7/12
He buys players who want to play for United
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I've never really understood this comment even though you see it written often.
Obviously SAF will not sign a player who does not want to play for United because that player will not sign for United. That does not mean that SAF wasn't interested.
E.g. we bid for Hazard by all accounts and he clearly did not want to play for United. Ditto Shearer, Batistuta, Gazza, etc.
I.e. we only sign players who want to play for us simply because they won't sign for us if they don't want to play for us!! That is not the same thing as not wanting to sign them.
posted on 25/7/12
redmisty
There's another category of players who are open to signing for United but don't really care whether it is United or some other club and are basically ready to go to the highest bidder. Fergie does seem to set particular store in players who positively choose United. Perhaps our reluctance to blow competing bids out of the water sometimes has a little to do with this: apart from saving money, perhaps this is a means to build in a motivation criterion.
posted on 25/7/12
RR
as i said earlier you would have thought people would have realised this by now.
posted on 25/7/12
Red Russian,
Fair point - I agree in principle but I also think that this is used by a lot of fans to make themselves feel better whenever we fail to sign a player...i.e. they say "oh well, he obviously didn't want to play for us" whenever United refuses to match a rival bid or whatever.
While it may be true that the player is a merc, I think fans are too quick to assume this whenever we miss out on a player. Shearer is a good example because we tried to sign him from Blackburn even AFTER he snubbed United to join Blackburn in the first place!
I just think it's a bit simplistic to say that we only bid for players who really want to play for us. The number of times we have been snubbed would suggest otherwise.
posted on 25/7/12
Owen would love to go to Everton. If they really wanted him they would get him, on a pay to play contact, too
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as an everton fan would like to see him sign for everton on a pay to play contract
posted on 25/7/12
as an everton fan would like to see him sign for everton on a pay to play contract
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he is currently looking for a club to do just this. Have a word with Moyesie.
posted on 25/7/12
comment by redmisty (U7556) posted 1 hour, 18 minutes ago
"I just think it's a bit simplistic to say that we only bid for players who really want to play for us."
No, we only sign players who want to play for us, we usually find out what the player is about once a bid has been made, do they perk up and think "United want me" as with Bebatov, or do they prefer to go elsewhere, as with others. The ones we sign are the ones Sir Alex believes will fit in!
posted on 25/7/12
redmisty
I agree it isn't black / white. If a player is very good (and in the case of Shearer not only was he good, but there was no question of his dedication to the job at hand on the field) it helps offset any ambivalence about United.
posted on 26/7/12
The ones we sign are the ones Sir Alex believes will fit in!
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Possibly! Or you could argue that the ones we sign are the ones who said "yes" instead of "no"!
Red Russian, fair point about Shearer. He was a monster so arguablyl worth chasing even if he didn't care about the club. I guess my point is that we used to try to sign the best players regardless whereas now it is often argued that we only try to sign players who really want to play for United. I think to some extent what this really means is that we just can't afford to bid for the best players anymore...